NORWALK – Daniel Rodriguez ran toward the sound of a gunshot, then stepped over the body of Armando Ramos Jr. without realizing it.

Moments before, Ramos had been shot in the head, Rodriguez testified Thursday in the trial of Ramos’ accused killer. Rodriguez lived seven houses away from the shooting scene, but he heard yelling, he said.

“They were screaming, `No! No! No!,”‘ he said.

In front of the Pico Rivera house where the shooting happened, he saw a young man screaming and covered in blood. He said he saw defendant Michael Jimenez by the back gate.

“\ said, `I had to do it. What would you do?”‘ Rodriguez said.

Then, he said, he turned around and saw Ramos’ body lying on the ground.

“It didn’t look like a person,” he said.

Jimenez, 23, of Bell is charged with murdering Ramos, 20, of Pico Rivera at about 3 a.m. on April 16.

Rodriguez testified on the second day of Jimenez’s trial.

Ramos and Jimenez were drinking and talking with three other friends in the 3400 block of Chapelle Avenue minutes before the shooting, witnesses testified.

During initial interviews with sheriff’s deputies, witnesses said Ramos was killed in a drive-by shooting.

But they changed their story a few days later and identified Jimenez as the shooter. The witnesses claimed they were scared of being hurt by Jimenez or his friends.

“Didn’t the officers tell you that you could be arrested and put in jail for 10 years unless you talked to them?” Ingber asked witness Kenny Jinzo. “They told you, `If you don’t talk to us now, we’re going to arrest you.”‘

Ingber also questioned Jinzo, who was drinking and talking with Ramos, about what motive Jimenez could have had for killing Ramos, since they were acquaintances and hadn’t appeared to argue that night.

“I don’t know why,” said Jinzo. “I think it’s just because of the way Mike is. He thinks he’s a bad ass.”